Silsden residents will have to wait until February to get their new park bridge, the town council has been told.

Bradford Council engineer Richard Todd went to the town council meeting to discuss plans for the bridge into the town park, which is currently blocked off after health and safety officials ruled it unsafe to walk on.

Although barriers across both entrances to the bridge are meant to deter people from using it, residents have been worried about youths jumping over the fences.

Mr Todd told the meeting that the bridge should be ready to fully installed around February and that no temporary bridge would be erected in the meantime. He said: “We looked into the costing of a temporary bridge and it was coming in the £5-6,000 region. The maintenance and repair works that we carried out come to just under £6,000 and altogether the bridge will come in just under £16,000, so we are using up the budget.

Mr Todd added:“It will be built in sandstone so will be the same as other buildings. The bridge will take 12 weeks to be manufactured before we can install it, but in the meantime we can do the ground works to make sure it is ready to be installed once it has been made.”

The council thanked Mr Todd for his visit and accepted his preferred stone design for the new bridge.